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Monday, 23 April 2018

Debate with Vinay Prasad on the value of clinical practice and doctors’ training

Vinay Prasad (University of Oregon) and Adam Cifu (University of Chicago), authors of "Ending Medical Reversal: Improving Outcomes, Saving Lives" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), point out 146 clinical practices that should be ditched because it has been proved that they do not deliver the promised results. The list of these practices affects the whole range of the health activity; however, making a detailed reading, it has been observed that these are mainly found in four specialties: cardiology, gynaecology, orthopaedics and family medicine. It’s because of this reason that the Section of Clinical Management of the Catalan Society of Health Management (SCGS), in its Annual Conference to be held on May 18, in agreement with the team of the project Essencial of AQuAS, has organized a debate between one of the authors of the book, Vinay Prasad, and representatives of the 4 mentioned specialties: Xavier Viñolas, president of the Sociedad Catalana de Cardiología (SCC), Juan José Espinós, gynecologist at the Hospital de Sant Pau, Joan Miquel, orthopaedist at the Hospital de Igualada and Marta Expósito of the Sociedad Catalana de Medicina Familiar y Comunitaria (CAMFIC). The debate, which will rely on the moderation of Sandra Garcia Armesto, director of the " Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud ", aims to not only find out first-hand about the work of Vinay Prasad, but also to find out what the related specialists think of these practices and what is the impact on our situation, differentiated in many aspects from that of the United States.

On the other hand, Prasad and Cifu, in the book, propose to significantly modify the training programs in medical schools, in order to train new physicians that are more demanding with regards to scientific rigor, more critical of practices with poor value, more sensitive to the needs of patients and more oriented to the evaluation of results. The proposed formula is very simple: the clinical sciences should be the priority, while the basic ones (as we understand them today) should be complementary. It’s not about studying models and then checking them (current system), but about doing it the other way around: from the findings of the clinic, doctors should review (or accept) the theories. Given the importance of the proposal, we thought it appropriate to organize, in the same framework of the Conference, a second debate moderated by Xavier Bayona, with three academic authorities in the training of doctors: Francesc Cardellach (Universitat de Barcelona), Ramon Pujol (Universitat de Vic - UCC) and Milagros García Barbero, president of the Sociedad Española de Educación Médica and, logically, also inviting Vinay Prasad to join them.

The program of the Conference is attached, with the clear purpose of encouraging all readers to register, because nobody should miss out on the opportunity to listen to and pose questions to Vinay Prasad and all invited speakers.